We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Mohsen Jafarimalek ("MJ").

Always thinking about new ideas and fresh style for everyday products I use. thinking about how could it be if it has a different look, shape or even function. "How could I make it work/look better" this is the sentence pop up in my mind when I see a product. I'm working hard to achieve this, I started to work on my brand last year.

Mohsen Jafarimalek Designs

We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Mohsen Jafarimalek.

Designer Interview of Mohsen Jafarimalek:

DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?

MJ : I started my bachelor's degree in industrial design because I like to be a car designer! after spending one and a half year I realized my main passion is product design. like others, try to practice sketching and rendering and upgrade myself to what I am today.

DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?

MJ : Actually my design studio is very small right now, I'm working on it and like to make it bigger someday.

DI: What is "design" for you?

MJ : Design for me is to solve a problem from a daily life product or service. if we could solve one of those problems I think then we could say we design something. one of the big parts of the design is style for me. everyone like to see a beautiful solution instead of just a way out of the problems.

DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?

MJ : products with wheels! I don't know maybe it's because of my passion for car design.

DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?

MJ : my most favorite design in which category? I can name an object in each product category as my favorite. BMW Z8 is my favorite car ever, iMac second generation is one of the best all in one till now. and these days Microsoft doing very well in design I think.

DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?

MJ : I designed a marker cap for a local stationery brand with a pentagonal shape!

DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?

MJ : actually my favorite materials are natural materials like glass, wood, concrete, stone... they are pure and I feel very close to those natural elements. but one of m favorite platform/technology is 3d-printing. I think there are so much potentials in that and we just start to play with it.

DI: When do you feel the most creative?

MJ : it's funny but when I could shut down my brain I start to be creative!

DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?

MJ : finding the best solution for the problem and design the producible object.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?

MJ : freedom and some kind of adventure.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?

MJ : happiness of course.

DI: What makes a design successful?

MJ : I think many things are involved in a successful design. for example, the solution we find for the design brief and the way we think about the subject could be a key factor.

DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?

MJ : every object and every product around us has some layers, I think style and overall look of each object is the first layer. so the first thing may everyone evaluate on each object is style I think.

DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?

MJ : selecting material, design a life cycle for product and so on but the point is, it's not on the designer shoulders only. clients and designers could achieve this together and if the clients don't care about these and just want to get the final result it's getting very hard for designers.

DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?

MJ : it's a big question, I hope we get to a better place with AI. hope this technology helps our designers and design software to design some new forms and solutions.

DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?

MJ : I don't take part in an exhibition, I believe best exhibition for designers is store shelves and amazon website!

DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?

MJ : Nature is my biggest source, I believe we can find a solution for every problem in nature.

DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?

MJ : I like modern and minimal designs more. because they are so right to the point and pure.

DI: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?

MJ : I'm living in Iran right now, and yes I think all of us take effects of our region and culture. one of the powerful elements here is music, our classical music is something different for me.

DI: How do you work with companies?

MJ : most of the time using social media and communication apps. I didn't use to leave my cave!

DI: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?

MJ : It shouldn't be a very hard thing to find out these days, I think all designers share their works on social media and companies could find the best one on the web very easy.

DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?

MJ : the first phase is to find the best solution, searching the web and looking on the market for something close to what I want to do. after I find the solution, hand sketching, detail drawing, and start the 3d modeling.

DI: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?

MJ : coffee maker, lighting, phone, bathtubs, and everything we normally never like to design!

DI: Can you describe a day in your life?

MJ : waking up, making breakfast with my wife. getting my son ready for kindergarten. start working on my projects, get lunch with my family, have fun with my son (painting, lego, bicycle,...), watch some movies or playing a video game.

DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?

MJ : you are the only one who could shape the feature, start from somewhere you think that's important. practice hard and you will get the result.

DI: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?

MJ : being someone who could change the style or our behavior with a product is always a great feeling for me. and I think the only negative thing is sitting indoor behind the desk or computer, the design process is a very time-consuming process.

DI: What is your "golden rule" in design?

MJ : think differently.

DI: What skills are most important for a designer?

MJ : imagination and drawing I think.

DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?

MJ : the main tool is a piece of paper and a pencil. but if you like to know about the software, a bunch of them are available. Rhino, 3d max, Vray, Keyshot, Photoshop, and Poser are my best tools.

DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?

MJ : most of the time I break the whole process in smaller parts, start to schedule the small parts and finish them one by one.

DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?

MJ : it depends on the subject of the design job. something from one week to several months.

DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?

MJ : most times people asking about some of my winning designs, they looking to purchase some of them and asking about the right place to buy.

DI: What was your most important job experience?

MJ : design and develop an ironing board based on one of my past designs for production.

DI: Who are some of your clients?

MJ : most of them are start-ups all around the globe.

DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?

MJ : styling is very fun, the first impression of any product would be styling and it's always fun.

DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?

MJ : working on a device for pets, sadly I can't share any detail of the project yet. hopefully, we will lunch it next year.

DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?

MJ : most of the time I'm working alone, but for bigger projects, we hire others to help us. for our last project, we hire someone to develop the design for prototype and other pre-production things.

DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?

MJ : I love to but I think it's better to hold it for later, but it is a device for pets and hopefully next year we will lunch it to the market.

DI: How can people contact you?

MJ : they can reach me by my email: mohsenjafarimalek@gmail.com

DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?

MJ : No, everything was fine. very detailed questions. thanks.